Hydrogel nanoparticle encapsulated plasmid as a suitable gene delivery system

Rafiee A., Riazirad F., Alimohammadian M.H., T. Gazori, Fatemi S.M.R., Havaskary M.

To facilitate the delivery of genetic material, the use of appropriate carriers such as polymers is necessary. Na-noparticles comprising of chitosan-alginate polymers were formed through pregel preparation method. Chi/Alg nanoparticles had a mean Z-Average diameter of 161.8 nm and mean zeta 29.3 mV, respectively. The ability of plasmid-complex in preventing DNA migration showed Chi/Alg nanoparticles have great capacity to maintain plasmid. The efficiency of nanoparticles for transfection of pEGFP-N1 plasmid in the cultured HEK 293 cells was measured by flow cytometry. Cell viability assays indicated that nano-particles had no toxic effect on HEK 293 cells after 4 or 24 h. Our suitable candidate for gene delivery would be Alg/Chi nanoparticles.

Key words: chitosan, alginate, nanoparticle, size, transfection efficiency, cytotoxicity

Tsitologiya i Genetika 2015, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 16-20

• Department of Biology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
• Immunology Department, Pasteur institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
• Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran
• Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Department of Marine Biology, Tehran, Iran
• Young researchers club, Tehran central branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

E-mail: aras_marine_biology yahoo.com

Rafiee A., Riazirad F., Alimohammadian M.H., T. Gazori, Fatemi S.M.R., Havaskary M. Hydrogel nanoparticle encapsulated plasmid as a suitable gene delivery system, Tsitol Genet., 2015, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 16-20.